The present invention relates in general to scented articles, and more particularly to wearing apparel with scented designs.
The merchandising of wearing apparel is a significant industry and represents millions of dollars for businesses and billions of dollars for the national economy. While clothes in general provide the basic function of covering one""s body and providing an insulation from the environment, the sales of clothes involves much more than the appeal to these basic interests. Brand names, style, design and other considerations are factors that are brought into focus in the marketing and merchandising of wearing apparel. Many designers highlight their clothing lines with logos, colors, designs and other insignia to distinguish their wearing apparel from that of competitors. Jeans have designer logos on the hind pockets, sports shirts bear the logos of the makers on the sleeves or pockets, socks have stitched insignia, t-shirts have numerous designs imprinted thereon, and other clothing items bear many different types of insignia to identify the makers thereof.
The sales of t-shirts and sweat shirts is an enormous industry, especially when coupled with an entertainment event. While the cost of the raw materials of a t-shirt may be under a dollar, or so, the price of a t-shirt embossed with a design and sold at an event may cost upwardly of $20. The designs applied to a t-shirt are limited only by the imagination of the designer. Multi-color designs are common, as are catchy slogans and the like. The competitiveness of such an industry is readily apparent at sports events, such as auto racing, football, basketball, baseball, etc. Other entertainment events such as rock concerts, festivals, social gatherings, etc., also provide respective forums for the marketing of such type of wearing apparel.
The process of placing a design on at-shirt, sweat shirt or other wearing apparel includes many considerations, the least of which is the selection of an ink which will endure a reasonable number of washing and drying cycles. In order to mass produce wearing apparel with designs applied thereto, a process must be used which allows multiple colors to be applied to the garment, and allowed to set or dry in a short period of time. Carousel equipment is readily available for printing complicated multicolor designs on t-shirts, at a rate of 800 t-shirts or more an hour. The design of the insignia is facilitated by the availability of computer equipment which allows a design to be easily copied or generated and transferred to a stencil, silk screen or other ink application equipment.
The t-shirt embossing industry constantly strives for an advantage over the respective competitors. New inks and processes continue to be developed to achieve better and more brilliant colors, more realistic designs with intricate shapes and definition. Inks are presently available for providing garment designs with a better xe2x80x9chandxe2x80x9d. The xe2x80x9chandxe2x80x9d of the design refers to the softness of the ink after a number of layers or colors have been applied to the material. Typically, various inks and/or layer of ink applied to a material makes the garment material somewhat stiff, resulting in a negative hand. Hence, by using more colors in a design, the the appearance is enhanced, but the softness of the finished product is often compromised.
While the development of new apparel designs continues to make the articles more aesthetically appealing, there is generally a lack of development of the incorporation of scented designs into wearing apparel. Again, any scented design involving an ink must be able to withstand a reasonable number of conventional washing and drying cycles, be non-allergenic and cost effective.
Inks typically used in printing text on paper are of the extract type, or are xe2x80x9cessentialxe2x80x9d oil type scents. These scents generally do not have the longevity as compared to synthetic scents.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that there is a need for a new scented ink and application process for applying the same to an article. Another need exists for a scented design that can be applied easily and economically to wearing apparel. Yet another need exists for a process for applying a scent or fragrance to a design, which matches or is associated with the design.
The present invention disclosed and claimed herein, in one aspect thereof, comprises a scented ink that is applied to wearing apparel, such as a t-shirt. An oil-based scent, such as the type used for making scented candles, is mixed with a plastisol-type ink and applied to the wearing apparel using conventional screen print techniques. With this type of scent, the application of heat or warmth to the wearing apparel releases the scent. The scent used can match the design applied to the garment. For example, a grape scent can used with purple-colored ink to make a clustered grape design on the garment.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, layers of ink are employed to make the design, with each layer being scented. This process provides a longer lasting scent to the design when applied to an article. A first application of scented ink can be used a base layer for dark or light-colored material to provide a neutral color for applications of other colors thereon. Subsequent applications of scented inks, which may be different colored shapes and designs can be applied over the base layer. In a preferred form of the invention, each layer of a design would have the same scent. Lastly, an application of a clear scented ink can be used as a top coating to provide a shiny surface to all or selected portions of the design. By using a plastisol-type of ink, the colored and scented design has a high quality positive xe2x80x9chandxe2x80x9d, i.e., a rubbery and soft texture to the feel.
According to other features of the invention, different thicknesses of stencils can be used on screens to provide different thicknesses of scented ink on the materials, thereby providing a larger source of the scent and allowing the scent to last a longer period of time.